Lo sagrado en lo cotidiano: la ceremonia del té en Japón

Abstract

Current  global circumstances have led us to appreciate more our everyday life dimension; at the same time, we can perceive how rituals are disappearing and so, we often feel disoriented and restless while dealing with our everyday routines. This essay aims at showing through approaching Japanese tea ceremony how it is possible to make sacred, through ritualization, an ordinary experience as basic as the one of sharing a tea in good company. To this end, a detailed historical cum philosophical approach is held, distinguishing two big types of ceremony that were held in Medieval Japan (15^th-16^th centuries). After this historical overview three main features, inspired in Zen Buddhism, will be praised as main values and benefits of this kind of shared everyday ritual: the dimensions of service, a sense of belonging and the feeling of being alive.